Mohegan spends $400,000 to promote casino before vote

In advance of a Feb. 25 vote in Revere, Mass., to approve or reject the $1.3 billion casino Mohegan Sun has proposed at the Suffolk Downs racecourse, the developer has spent $400,000 on a campaign promoting the project, the Boston Herald said Thursday. More

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Mohegan spends $400,000 to promote casino before vote

MOHEGAN SUN has reportedly spent $400,000 to promote the $1.3 billion resort casino it proposes building at the Suffolk Downs racecourse in Revere, Mass. Above, an artist's rendering of the proposed casino, which would include 4,000 slot machines, 100 table games and a poker room.

BOSTON – In advance of a Feb. 25 vote in Revere, Mass., to approve or reject the $1.3 billion casino Mohegan Sun has proposed at the Suffolk Downs racecourse, the developer has spent $400,000 on a campaign promoting the project, the Boston Herald said Thursday.

The $400,000, reported in recent campaign finance filings, included $46,000 to the advertising firm that designed the casino’s promotional website, $44,000 to a Boston polling firm and about $50,000 to two different campaign consulting firms. By comparison, Mohegan’s opponents in Revere have spent $30,000 total.

According to pollsters queried by the Boston Herald, the vote on Feb. 25 is expected to be close.

Residents of Revere approved the original Suffolk Downs plan – which involved a $1 billion casino at its racecourse straddling the East Boston-Revere border – in a vote last November. After the project failed to garner support among voters in East Boston, however, Suffolk Downs reworked the plan to move the casino entirely onto the Revere side of the property and partnered with Mohegan Sun as the casino’s operator.

During a Dec. 10 hearing, Massachusetts Gaming Commissioner James McHugh argued that another public referendum was required to prove that the residents of Revere agree with the changes that Suffolk Downs and Mohegan have made to the original plan.

Also contending for the sole Boston-area gaming license is Wynn Resorts Ltd., which has proposed a $1.3 billion casino along the Mystic River in Everett, Mass. Residents of Everett overwhelmingly approved the plan in a vote last June, in which the Boston Herald said Wynn Resorts spent more than $400,000.

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